Franklin city election 2011: Early candidates for Mayor

Next week, Mayor John Schroer officially steps down as Franklin mayor and Alderman Ken Moore will be sworn in as Franklin’s mayor for the next nine months. Moore, who was elected as an alderman at large in 2007, is the city’s vice mayor and will be Franklin’s 31st mayor.

Moore is also saying he’s going to run to be elected as mayor in the Oct. 25 election.

Who else might be thinking about it? Consider former city solid waste director Joe Williams.

Williams says he’s not closing the door on making a run as mayor. Williams was the city’s longtime solid waste department director and, in 2009, got a $2 million settlement Franklin officials to drop a federal lawsuit he filed against the city related to his being fired.

Williams was erroneously accused of downloading pornographic images onto city laptop computers. City officials later cleared Williams of any wrongdoing.

“Three years ago I thought I knew what the future held,” said Williams, who works as a consultant now. “I was very wrong. I no longer make assumptions about what I’ll be doing in the future.”

April 22 is the first day a qualifying petition can be picked up for the city elections. The qualifying deadline for the October election is July 21.